Tuesday 20 September 2022

Becchina and the Shelby White collection

Source: Manhattan DA

LM noted that two of the objects displayed by the Manhattan DA for return to Italy were in the Shelby White collection. The Attic black-figured skyphos showing Odysseus escaping from the Cave of Polyphemos  clearly appears in one of the photographs seized from the Becchina archive. 

Does this explain why the Italian authorities are revisiting the Shelby White collection? Is it because the previous returns had not taken proper account of the Becchina archive?

It would be interesting to learn how and when Shelby White and Leon Levy acquired the skyphos. Was it directly from Galerie Antike Kunst Palladion? Or was it through another party?

Incidentally, the other piece in the photograph was acquired by a separate New York collection.

It should be noted that the identification of the Shelby White skyphos was made by Associate Professor Christos Tsirogiannis. 

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